Outside!

Going outside is the coolest new thing. Not like we've never gone outside before, but lately it's been to the car or on the occasional walk (I guess that was back in January). But now "outside" is a whole thing. Yesterday we walked around the corner to another set of twins' house--very cool, though I was warned I had a year of a new level of exhaustion in front of me. (Not too bad--I heard it lasted until they were four--which I guess coincides with school for most people. Today we played outside for an hour. I picked up trash while they walked up and down Bob & Donna's driveway. They did NOT want to go in. It started snowing in the freaky wind about 3 minutes after we got in, which calmed them down some. Will they ever go in the stroller again?

Other new things:

• They are signing more for me to keep reading. They've been signing more for while, but it's always been for something concrete (more banana).
• They both said something awfully close to 'nana today (for banana). They're saying so much stuff, though B words remain a favorite. Lena says, "hop pop," for Hop on Pop. Chris says they say, "Hi everybody," but I don't really hear it.
• They rock with their animals signs. Nico was doing fish today, and I said, "I think you're doing fish, but I'm not sure why." So she got down on her hands and knees and went under the crib/storage area. There was my old nursing pillow, covered in fish. When we look at books, the can find cat, dog, fish, duck, bunny, and mouse (I made up a silly sign for mouse). I also made up a sign for snow today; the way they do it, it looks like they're saying hallelujah. Awesome. Oh, and we saw a real cat today, and they were fascinated. Lena was a little scared because it was coming up and rubbing itself on her.
  
• I started signing the alphabet to them recently. (It occurred to me that kids in daycare and/or who watch tv might hear the song a lot more than these girls, so I want to make sure they have access to it, you know?) Anyway, today I was nursing them on the alphabet mat, and I started singing, and Nico got up and started pointing to the letters on the mat!!! So now I'm spelling out the alphabet with the foam letters for them when I give them a bath (very occasionally). We used to sing the alphabet on the wall in the playroom too, which they liked, but was frustrating for me because I couldn't hold them both and point to the letters the way they like. I really hope they are early readers. I point to the words as I read, and sometimes I'll sound out words. (I guess teaching phonics way back when to ESL students was more beneficial than it seemed. And when I was working on the MA in Education, I had a feeling it was really for my future kids. And as a foundation for the new "school" I will someday found;).)

(Above, Nico and Grandpa D.)